My partner and I have a cat named Tiffany and he's an old grumpy cat. He's gotten very sweet and trusting of us in the last year since we adopted him from some friends of ours that moved overseas. However, Tiffany is still a bit of a loose cannon. For example, you can't snuggle him. I can pick him up without incident, but if you pet him in the wrong places he tries to scratch or bite you. I

Now...I want to adopt a new cat. However, my partner thinks Tiffany will eat the cat if we adopt one. I think Tiffany is much sweeter than we give him credit for. He's an old cat and I think adopting a younger one would give him some company.

But I don't know what the right decision is. It's really hard to tell how a cat will react to bringing a kitten into the house.

How do you guys decide? I've been looking at the shelter website here and falling in love with numerous kittens, but we're a long way off from a decision.

Have you considered fostering? Shelters are often in dire need of foster homes for cats and kittens. That would be a great way to help a cat in need while also gauging how Tiffany would feel about a kitty companion. If you haven't yet, read over some guides about introducing cats. Here's one from a website I like: http://www.catster.com/kittens/How-to-I ... Feline-123 . I have two cats and they are both around 2-3 years old, one male, one female. I had Luna first, and then Dexter showed up on our porch and I knew he was meant for us. It took about four months for them to really warm up to each other. They still fight now and then, but they also groom each other constantly and hate to be away from each other so I know they are really BFFs. Cat friendships take time, even if you follow all of the right steps, but I think it can be really rewarding for a cat to have a companion.

The fostering idea could be a way to expose Tiffy to new animals, but I'll have to look into how they do it over here.

As much as I'm afraid of bringing a new cat here, I also think it could be great for Tiffany to have another animal friend around. I wish he could talk to me about it!

Some of the things I'm worried about beyond just the obvious fact that he could kill a kitten is that he might get pissed off and pee on a bunch of stuff. Right now we have what you might consider the best cat. He only scratches his scratching post, isn't mischievous and has never peed on anything outside of his litter box aside from this one time after he first arrived (I think he was stressed).

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:20 pmPosts: 1093Location: Land of the First Kaiju

We struggled with this before we ended up taking the plunge (and don't regret it for one second). There's really no way of knowing, but we guessed our first cat would do well with a friend because she was so playful and demanded our attention so frequently. Lo and behold, she immediately took to our younger kitty and greeted him by kissing him on his face. I'd say that you probably have a better chance of Tiffany accepting a new cat if you adopt one that's younger than he is. They also say that opposite sexes do best together, but I feel like that's sort of a myth.

We wanted a friend to keep our first cat company, especially when we're away, and also a playmate. He is all of that, and more. That's of course not to say you'll have a similar experience, but if he seems lonely and is very playful, I'm sure another cat would do very well in the household.